Anne-Marie Sheahan

Ms. Sheahan is the senior partner of Sheahan LLP and has concentrated her practice in environmental counselling, analysis of new regulations and the environmental issues raised in commercial transactions. She advises clients on current and emerging regulation, on environmental corporate disclosure, on compliance with environmental laws, on the restoration of contaminated sites and on the development and closure of industrial sites. She negotiates and drafts environmental contracts such as rehabilitation and indemnification agreements, sale of offsets and purchase of contaminated assets. She coordinates environmental due diligences for all types of transactions, including initial public offerings, sale of shares and assets of industrial businesses and financing of industrial projects or activities.

Ms. Sheahan is a member of the Permanent Committee on the Environment of the Quebec Bar. She is a past president of the Environment Section of the Canadian Bar Association (Quebec division), past member of the executive of the National Environmental, Energy and Resources Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association and is a former Board member of RECYC-QUEBEC, a Crown corporation. She has practised environmental law in a large Canadian law firm for twenty years where she headed the national environmental group and was a member of the national Board of Partners for several years.

Ms. Sheahan has authored several articles on environmental law, namely on the civil law and the environment, on environmental issues related to the execution of securities and on environmental disclosure by public companies. She has given conferences on the sale of offsets, Canadian and American climate change regulation, integration of the amendments brought to the EQA (Bill 89), environmental aspects of infrastructure projects, sale of contaminated land, class actions in environmental matters, defenses in penal prosecutions and environmental liens and priorities. She was invited to speak at the annual seminar for Federal Court judges to discuss the application of the precautionary principle in Canadian law.

She appears in all editions of the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory since 1997 as a “leading lawyer” in environmental law. She is ranked “Band 1 – Notable Practitioner” for Canada in the British directory Chambers Global. She is also listed in the Martindale Hubbell, PLC Which Lawyer, Best Lawyers in Canada, in which she was named "Lawyer of the Year 2015 in Environmental Law - Montréal", Who’s Who Legal for Canada and the World Leading Environmental Lawyers. She appears in the Canadian Women in the Lead Directory and the World’s Leading Women in Business Law Directory.

She received BCL and LLB degrees from McGill University in 1989 and was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1991. She is fluent in the English and French languages.

Christian Immer

Mr. Immer is a partner of Sheahan LLP and has a significant experience in litigation and the settlement of civil, commercial, corporate and environmental disputes. He represents clients in matters involving civil claims for migration of contaminants, hidden defects pertaining to the environmental condition of properties as well as administrative and penal recourses pursuant to the Fisheries Act, the Environment Quality Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. He also has extensive experience in civil claims in damages against directors and officers, professionals (architects, engineers, securities brokers and mutual fund representatives), injunctions (unfair competition, damage to the environment), class actions, dismissal of high level management, administrative recourses and judicial review, energy related tariffs and price control and commercial disputes resulting from breaches of contractual representations and warranties in the sale of businesses and assets or banking.

Me Immer counsels clients in the mining, energy, pulp and paper, manufacturing, infrastructure and transportation sectors with regard to potential penal, administrative and civil liability. He advises on settlement strategies, namely with regard to potential class actions and assists clients in determining the applicability of federal, provincial and municipal environmental laws and regulations in light of constitutional division of powers.

He appeared before all Quebec courts including the Superior Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada. He represented clients before administrative tribunals, such as the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec and the Quebec Energy Board. He also represented clients in private commercial arbitration proceedings and acted as arbitrator in commercial arbitration proceedings.

Mr. Immer published case comments on class actions, dismissal and directors’ liability. He lectured on environmental legislation at the Conseil patronal de l’environnement du Québec and at the Engineering and Architecture faculties of McGill University, as well as a law and ethics course at the École Polytechnique de Montréal.

He holds a Bachelor in Secondary Education in History and Geography from the Université du Québec à Montréal, has received BCL and LLB degrees from McGill University in 1991 and was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1992. He is fluent in the English, French and German languages.

Paul Granda

Paul Granda has a vast experience in numerous fields related to environmental law. Over the years, he has advised clients on a variety of questions pertaining to issues relative to their establishments’ or their operation’s compliance with applicable environmental laws, and potential liabilities associated namely with present and historical land contamination, particularly in the petroleum and mining sectors, as well as in the context of brownfields redevelopment. He regularly provides counsel to his clients in the course of business transactions and his advice is sought as regards developing and implementing, or reviewing environmental management systems. His practice in the field of environmental law has also involved working closely with clients and government authorities regarding project approvals and the transfer of permits and approvals.

His client base includes companies in the manufacturing, mining, petroleum and real estate sectors as well as in the field of waste management and, namely, extended producer responsibility (product stewardship).

He is cited in Lexpert Canadian Legal Directory 2016, The Best Lawyers in Canada 2013, Who’s Who Legal: Canada 2015, and Chambers Global 2016 as a leading lawyer in Canada in environmental law.

Mr. Granda has written numerous environmental law articles and is regularly invited as a speaker at national and international conferences on a variety of environmental topics, including current trends in environmental laws and regulations, liability for contaminated sites, environmental compliance, directors’ and officers’ liability, and extended producer responsibility. He is a member of the editorial board of Environment Law published by Federated Press, a contributor to Canadian Environmental Law published by Butterworths and has contributed to The Canadian Brownfields Manual published by LexisNexis Butterworths.

Mr. Granda is a director and secretary of the Environmental Auditing Association of Québec (Association québécoise de vérification environnementale) and is Secretary of Société de gestion des huiles usagées (SOGHU), the Québec used oils, oil, anti-freeze and fluid containers and used filters recovery and reclamation association. He is a member of the Québec non-profit organization Les Ailes de l’Espérance/The Wings of Hope whose mission is to finance, support and implement potable water projects in remote villages in Peru. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of CLIPP (Centre de liaison sur l’intervention et la prévention psychosociales), a non-profit organization dedicated to the improvement of psychosocial prevention and intervention practices in relation to family violence and knowledge transfer in this field, and Chairman of the Board of the contemporary dance company ParBleux.

He received a BCL degree from McGill University in 1975 and was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1976.

Mariko Maya Khan

Ms. Khan is a lawyer at Sheahan LLP. She has experience in drafting environmental contracts, including in the context of commercial transactions, and in preparing applications for environmental permits and advises clients with respect to same. She also has experience in civil, commercial and penal litigation, specifically in research and drafting of legal proceedings, as well as in administrative proceedings including applications for review of monetary administrative penalties before the Bureau de réexamen.

She has researched environmental legal questions in various fields, including wind energy, mining, pulp and paper, aboriginal law, extended producer responsibility (waste management) and restoration of contaminated sites and advises clients on compliance with environmental laws. She has also provided opinions on the applicability of laws given the constitutional separation of powers and advises clients with regard to the cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emission allowances.

Ms. Khan holds a BA in political science from McGill University in 2006, an LLB (in civil law) from the University of Montreal in 2009, a JD (in common law) from the University of Montreal in 2012.

She was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 2010.

She is a member of the executive committee of the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section of the Quebec Division of the Canadian Bar Association.

Élise Théorêt

Ms. Théorêt is a lawyer at Sheahan LLP, where she has previously completed her professional internship.

She works on environmental mandates raising many legal issues, including in the field of mining, pulp and paper, hazardous waste and aboriginal law.

She is involved in litigation matters, notably as regards of neighborhood disturbances, latent defects, contaminated sites and injury claims. She acts in the field of the guardianship of the incapable adult.

In addition, she took part in writing articles about water protection and natural resources in Quebec.

Ms. Théorêt received her LLB from the University of Montreal in 2013 and was placed on the Dean's Excellence List. During her undergraduate degree, she was part of the Environmental Committee of the law students from the University of Montreal. She completed a Masters in Environmental Management at the University of Sherbrooke in 2015. As part of her Masters, she received an Award of Excellence and was granted a scholarship from The S.M. Group for her academic results.